Short-Term Variations in Velocity of South Cascade Glacier, Washington, U.S.A.

Abstract Displacement of an array of eight stakes was measured at approximately 12 h intervals on South Cascade Glacier, Washington, for a period of 638 h during July and August 1979. The array was located on the glacier center-line and had overall dimensions comparable to the 200 m ice thickness in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Glaciology
Main Author: Jacobel, Robert W.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1982
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022143000011667
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143000011667
Description
Summary:Abstract Displacement of an array of eight stakes was measured at approximately 12 h intervals on South Cascade Glacier, Washington, for a period of 638 h during July and August 1979. The array was located on the glacier center-line and had overall dimensions comparable to the 200 m ice thickness in this part of the glacier. Variations in velocity for individual stakes was typically 100% for periods of 12 h but decreased for longer time intervals in accordance with reports in the literature. The constraint of requiring compatible motion for the entire array reduces the averaged short-term fluctuations to the same order as the variations between stakes for a given 12 h period. This implies that non-uniformity in individual stake motion does not represent true velocity variation of the studied portion of the glacier.